With the ever growing success of the comic book genre in TV format, thanks in no small part to Netflix Originals, Marvel Studios has shifted to Fox for the next big television release. Since Fox owns the rights to the X-Men franchise, there hasn’t been a whole lot Marvel Studios has been able to do with re-structuring or even producing new X-Men related movie or TV content. However earlier on this year Marvel was able to purchase TV rights in the form of a partnership with Fox and is now making full use of their new ‘freedoms’ with the X-Men franchise through the production of an X-Men spinoff show focused around the character Legion.

The character was created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Bill Sienkiewicz, and first appeared in New Mutants #25 (March 1985). Legion is the mutant son of Professor Charles Xavier and Gabrielle Haller. He takes the role of an antihero and has a severe mental illness, including a form of dissociative identity disorder, with each of his personas controlling one of his many superpowers

Legion is being overseen and directed by Noah Hawley, most recently known for his TV version of Fargo, and will be starring Dan Stevens and Aubrey Plaza. In regards to the format of the new show, Hawley is planning on veering away from the current mainstream superhero formula of high action high intensity and will be focusing on an approach more fitting the characteristics of the shows protagonist. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Hawley gave this statement regarding Legion.

I always feel like the structure of a story should reflect the content of the story. If the story, as in this case, is about a guy who is either schizophrenic or he has these abilities, i.e., he doesn’t know what’s real and what’s not real, then the audience should have the same experience. There’s, whatever, 9,000 superhero stories right now. They’ve got all the running and kicking covered. I think my goal with this is to do something whimsical and imaginative and unexpected. Not just because I want to do something different, but because it feels like the right way to tell this story.

With all the superhero movies and TV shows that are being picked up by production companies, we can most definitely say that it is a great time to be alive for comic book fans. Legion is set to air on the FX Networks February 8th, 2017 but in the meantime check out the newest trailer Fox just released.

Are you guys as excited as we are for more X-Men related goodness? What are you looking forward to most from this new Marvel TV series? We’d love to engage in some superhero discussions! In the meantime check out what Marvel is doing with the Inhumans comic franchise right here on DFTG!